Sherri L. Mitchell

Executive DirectorSherri L. Mitchell, was born and raised on the Penobscot Indian Reservation, at Indian Island in Maine. Sherri received her J.D. and a certificate in Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy from the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law. While at the University of Arizona, Sherri served as President of the University of Arizona’s Native American Law Student Association and as Treasurer of the National Native Law Student Association. She also served as President of the UA -ACLU and Vice President of the University of Arizona’s Human Rights Organization. Sherri received her BS from the University of Maine, magna cum laude, where she received the Outstanding Student Achievement award from her Department.

Over the past ten years, Sherri has worked as an Educator for the Maine Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division; a law clerk at the United States Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor, in Washington DC; an associate with Fredericks, Peebles and Morgan, LLC. in Boulder, Colorado; and, as a legal analyst/advisor to Indigenous and Aboriginal groups across the United States and Canada, from her office in Tucson, Arizona. In 2009, Sherri’s work on nation-state complicity with Indigenous human rights violations won her the Maloney-Dunn International Human Rights and Humanitarian Award.

Prior to law school, Sherri worked as a Business Counselor and Development Coordinator for Four Directions Development Corporation and as the Development and Communications Director for the Maine Women’s Lobby. In addition, Sherri worked as a Community Development and Cultural Awareness Consultant from 1996-2008, which provided her with the opportunity to work with Tribal groups across the United States. She was appointed to the Maine Commission for Community Service in 2004; served on the board of the Maine Council for Adolescent Health from 1999-2000; and, served on the Board of Trustees for Maine Initiatives and their Major Grants Committee. Sherri was an advisor to the Maine Youth Voices Underage Drinking Program and she was a recipient of the Maine Governor’s Community Service Award in 1996, 1997 and 1998.

Sherri has served as a program coordinator to the American Indian Institute’s ‘Healing the Future Program and has been a participant of the Institute’s Traditional Circle of Indian Elders and Youth since 1995. She is an alumni member of two prestigious American Indian Leadership Programs: The American Indian Ambassador Program and the Udall Native American Congressional Internship program.She is also a published poet, scholar and philosopher.